In a recent essay anthology, the writer Rebecca Solnit refuses to relinquish hope on the climate story. As she writes in the lead essay titled, “Difficult is Not the Same as Impossible,” “Some days it can feel like you’re the house that caught fire, but you might also turn out to be the firefighter or the water.” Antra Bhargava, Founder of Bhoomiverse and Dhurthi, is a changemaker whose buoyancy at a time of climate despair, can reinject the idea of a circular economy with new imaginings.

Take what Dhurthi does with tire tubes. A BBC documentary estimates that, each year, we send nearly 14 million tires to landfills, where they accrete into non-biodegradable waste mountains. Bhargava’s team retrains leather artisans to fashion handbags, backpacks, laptop bags and other accessories from tire tubes. They pair rubber with upcycled denim, canvas or other textile discards. They also produce furniture from wooden pallets that accompany heavy machinery and other industrial deliverables. Usually, such pallets too are flung into landfills or heaped into unused piles at factories and other sites. Besides forging these two waste-to-wealth supply chains, Dhurthi does much more. Like every startup’s story, this one carries the imprints of its founder.

Childhood Marked by Wide-Ranging Achievements

Raised in a liberal, middle-class household that emphasized academic and extracurricular achievements, Antra pretty much shone across spheres. She swam competitively and started learning Taekwondo from the age of five. Deft with her kicks, punches and blocks, she garnered one of the nation’s first female black belt in the Korean martial art. Her onward journey in Taekwondo was temporarily derailed when she injured herself at 16 needing crutches on and off for the next 10 years. The setback however did not stop her from being involved in the sport. Though she could no longer compete inside the ring, she could command the fight enabling her to claim another nation’s first: the first female referee (at 17) for the 1998 National Games at Impala.

Early Roots of Her Impact Journey

Hitting her books, plunging into pools or nimbly tackling Taekwondo opponents wasn’t all. Since her family and her school inculcated her strong civic sense, she volunteered at Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity from the age of 12. The intangible rewards of serving vulnerable populations was to sear itself as a memory she would revoke later.

Crossing Borders to Attend Trinity College

With such a well-rounded student profile, cracking college admissions was a breeze. Until then, no woman in her family had been sent abroad. But Bhargava, accustomed to garnering “firsts”, applied on her own – sans parental involvement – to colleges in the U.S., UK and Ireland. Despite being admitted to a couple of the Ivy League institutions at the time, she was lured to Trinity College in Dublin, which seemed to woo her by flying down the Dean of International Relations to Kolkata for an interview.

Gleaning Ways of Being From the Irish

After the first year, she ensured she funded her tuition and living expenses, working round-the-clock in a panoply of jobs. She also befriended a diverse set of people, many of whom invited her into their homes. Her own attitudes shifted. From being homophobic, she turned into an LGBTQ+ ally. Also, after hearing about how Ireland had resolved its 30-year conflict, she felt that peace could always be engendered in violent, conflict-ridden terrains. In those formative years, she also realized that life was much larger than material possessions. Imbibing Irish wit and humor, her friends’ rambunctious community celebrations, their warmth and joie-de-vivre, she determined foremost to forge a joyful, healthy life. “To value art, music, food, drink and a good laugh,” she says

Digging Ledgers and Literature

Since the Trinity Master’s in Law required work experience, she chose to work at Arthur Andersen. When the firm was later acquired by KPMG, she qualified as a CA and as a chartered tax advisor. Given that her favorite school subjects had been English and Mathematics, the move from corporate law to finance and strategy felt natural. But she didn’t just stick with the rigors of bookkeeping, she also lapped up books: Georgette Heyers, Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies’ Detective series, Haruki Murakami and others. She remains a voracious reader to date.

Seeking Meaning Beyond Social Metrics

Later, on returning to India, after her corporate stint, she confronted a personal cancer scare. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. But this brush with her own mortality provoked tough questions. How should she spend her time on the planet? What fueled joy and meaning? Digging into her past dredged up memories. Of encountering Maneka Gandhi at school, working with local Rotary chapters or volunteering at the Missionaries of Charity. She felt like this part of herself had been hidden from sight, even to herself.

She spent a year prettifying streets with The Ugly Indian. And then led a team of 200 to paint a pediatric OPD ward at NIMHANS. Almost as if the universe were chiming in, just then she received a professional opportunity to head a healthcare startup. SuVitas was pioneering out-of-hospital rehabilitation and care for patients recovering from strokes, cancer, heart ailments and other life-changing conditions.

Studying Blueprints for Change

Spending a decade with the organization sparked her interest in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a visceral, first-hand manner, she grasped the intersectionality of climate, gender, impact and health. She realized how the eight dimensions of wellness – Physical, Emotional, Social, Intellectual, Environmental, Occupational, Financial, and Spiritual – rest on the eight Rs of the circular economy: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, and Recycle

When she exited SuVitas – after its acquisition by HCAH – this knowledge stayed with her. She even embarked on a Doctorate in Sustainability but decided eventually to channelize her energies into ground-level actions. All her insights, garnered over the years, have fueled her pioneering work in building India’s first phygital multi-channel solution to the 17 SDGs

Teaming up With the Green-Minded

Besides forging their inhouse brand, Antra’ s long term vision is simple – to make ethical consumption normal for Indian citizens across all their needs – Food, Fashion, Home and Lifestyle.  She emphasizes the need for collaboration rather than competition among players in this sector. Antra acts on this imperative by drawing in many other sustainable brands and products into her company’s fold: “There’s so much innovation and R&D in sustainable brands and products, but everyone’s working in silos.”

Bhoomiverse Opens Its Doors

The venture launched their first multi-brand sustainability physical superstore – Bhoomiverse – in Indiranagar last month. Bhargava is very clear that she intends to offer “quality and authentic products” at affordable prices across the sustainability spectrum. To really take root as a movement, she observes that sustainability has to be adopted across income classes and not just by a well-heeled sliver. Since her own strengths lie in logistics, efficiency and driving scale, she believes she can bridge gaps that the sector currently contends with.

A Second Life for Everything

Bhargava excitedly guides me through their Indiranagar store. From their cushions to their furniture (made from wooden pallets) to the cow-dung based paint on their walls, everything is reused (95% derived from landfill materials), organic and eco-friendly. Some of the featured building materials from a partner brand is 50% plastic waste and 50% sand waste. “Only the fittings and pictures are new,” she says. They currently offer products across the spectrum – cold-pressed oils, organic grains, healthful snacks, new and preloved clothing, upcycled and vintage furniture, household cleaners, make-up, perfumes, accessories, sustainable toys – from the functional to nice-to-haves. In picking these 70-plus brands with many more in the pipeline, she’s forged a Five-A’s model:

• Aggregate: Bring all the good folks under one roof.
• Authenticate: Verify that these brands are serving at least one UN SDG.
• Awareness: Spread Awareness of their availability.
• Accessibility: They will be available at physical and later at online marketplaces.
• Affordability: Scale the enterprise to lower prices.

From Products to Memorable Moments

It’s not just stuff. They’ve also set up a community space, where workshops, talks and meetups can be organized. So far, they’ve held sessions on music, meditation, composting, natural salts and healthful eating. They’re also planning to launch repair cafes, while becoming a collection point for e-waste and bottles that will be dispatched to producers. They’ve created an inventive thrift space, where customers can rent out or sell preloved clothes. Phew! It truly does feel like a microcosm of sustainable living for the community that the name “Bhoomiverse” encapsulates.

Growth Grounded in Compassion

When they do launch their digital platform to complement their physical stores, they hope to make a significant dent in the nation’s $ 1.3 trillion retail economy. For their online presence, Antra has inventive approaches planned. “We have a very exciting vision for the digital space which is very different from anything that’s ever been done before.”

At this point, Dhurthi is entirely bootstrapped. Seed money has been invested by well-wishers and sustainability champions like Mr. Richard Rekhy, former CEO of KPMG India. She observes: “When someone of his stature validates your idea, it helps boost your own confidence about being on the right path.” She’s also roped in partners, who have minor financial stakes but play a major role in the organization. Between them, they bring 60 to 70 years of work and life experience into the enterprise. She’s currently focused on tapping into patient, compassionate capital to expand the company’s operations and deliver excellent last mile execution of this powerful vision for our nation.

The Power of Positive Thinking

At a time when many might be tempted to feel otherwise, she believes that humans are essentially good, and everyone wants to do the right thing. Given that consumerism has become a way of life, folks should be given an ethical alternative: “I’m not saying buy less, buy whatever you want, just make it ethical.”

Martial arts taught her to respond to perilous situations rather than just react. It’s an instinct that she has forged into a personal safety model, one that she has transmitted to more than 20,000 people through workshops and lectures. She embodies – with her words and actions – the fighting spirit required to keep the climate action flames lit.

References

https://bhoomiverse.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dhurthi.collective/?hl=en